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Forums: It's Almost 2010. Where Are We?

Hey dudes/chicks,

I've ran my music recording forum since 2005. It's grown by leaps and bounds. I've been happily using the vBulletin platform for some time. It's been very good to me. However, it's time to expand. I'm looking to move towards a full blown community beyond that of just a forum.

The forum is useful, but I want members posting their own blogs and put time into their own profiles as is the focus on Myspace. I want full integration through numerous features throughout my community and I'm growing tired of the vBulletin here, Wordpress there, X script there setup.

My hope was that vBulletin 4 would be the answer. Based on what I'm reading, they aren't really adding any new features to it. I guess their fundamental platform is changing, but that seems more like a feature than a benefit to me. (We'll see.)

So, I'm looking for a killer forum at least equal to vBulletin, which I can expand into a full blown community with mega user profiles that encourage blog writing and other activities that go past the forum system. I'm cool with modding a script, if necessary, but it just feels like being almost 2010, someone should have a killer solution out of the box for this by now.

brandondrury, the problem is your wanting the forum to become something it isn't, a forum is not a social network or a blogging station, if you want something to ingregrate the features you should probably be looking at portal software, a CMS like drupal or a multiplatform system like wordpress which extends beyond blogging to a social platform. Forums are software and as such, people expect them to just do what is needed, not be bloated beyond capability.

From maybe a 2006 perspective you are correct. I'm thinking that there is a natural evolution from "just a forum" to a full blown community. The level of interaction between people online has changed in the past few years. The forum certainly has it's place.

Regardless, thanks for the help. I'll check out Drupal. It's been a few years.

Forums are software and as such, people expect them to just do what is needed, not be bloated beyond capability.

It may turn out that my needs are quite specialized. However, my gut says there is a natural evolution to the forum that could make the forum even more effective. My experience has shown me that developers seldom change hats enough to see this.

brandondrury, no see your talking social networks and collaboration software here, a forum is not a twitter platform, it's not a facebook profile system, it's a messaging system which isn't live... while they could make transitions towards the social web it really isn't something the majority of people look for in a forum platform. Forum's have their place on the web and realistically, taking it beyond what they are now would be changing it to something other than a forum. It's not evolution, it's hybridization, don't get me wrong, I am all for the social web and making thing's more integrated but what your saying is like saying "let's have a chat room which connects to twitter, has profiles with facebook, aids blogging and is a full blown e-commerce system for product pitching".